New Class Action Lawsuits Involving Employment-Related Maintain Top Spot Among Class Action Filings In California State And Federal Courts

As a resource to California class action defense attorneys, we provide weekly, unofficial summaries of the legal categories for new class action lawsuits filed in California state and federal courts in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego, San Mateo, Oakland/Alameda and Orange County areas. We include only those categories that include 10% or more of the class action filings during the preceding week. This report covers July 25 – 31, 2008, during which time 50 new class action lawsuits were filed. Labor law class action lawsuits generally top the list of new class action filings in California state and federal courts, often by a wide margin, and this again proved to be the case. Twenty-five (25) new labor law class action lawsuits were filed during the past week, representing 50% of the total number of new class action lawsuits filed during the time period. The only other categories that satisfied the 10% threshold involved class action lawsuits alleging unfair business practice claims, which include false advertising claims, with 8 new filings (16%), and class action lawsuits alleging federal antitrust violations, with 6 new filings (12%).

Michael J. Hassen's litigation practice spans almost 30 years and emphasizes general business and commercial litigation, including class action defense and unfair business practice representative actions (section 17200).

He represents lenders in all facets of lender litigation, ranging from class actions and unfair business practices based on alleged "predatory" lending and RESPA violations or alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, to claims alleging elder abuse or challenging the validity or priority of liens.

Michael also has significant experience in business torts such as misappropriation of trade secrets and raiding of corporate employees, ADA claims, and all phases of commercial and real estate finance, construction finance and construction defect claims.

He is experienced in appellate matters, having had primary responsibility for preparing more than 100 appellate briefs.